My hands are now healing. They may still look a little red in the picture but they definitely don’t feel the same way they did last week. I am the happiest I’ve felt in awhile. I feel good physically and mentally. I do have to keep reminding myself that this will always be something I have to deal with, but I’m constantly learning what I can and can’t do. I did learn that I have to avoid drinking certain alcohol, but not all alcohol is bad. I know what foods to avoid and what food has been helping. This non steroid cream (eucresa) has been a miracle. I put it on in the morning and at night and my hands look fantastic. I feel like I can get back to normal.

I will be MIA for about 10 days starting on Thursday. But then I’ll be back in full swing and will be writing about starting fastphysique again!

I went to the allergist yesterday and found out I am not allergic to anything. So an allergy is not causing the eczema. I kind of knew that, but was getting so tired of guessing. So the allergy doctor did prescribe me a new ointment that recently came on the market that is non-steroid based. It’s called Eucrisa and it’s only applied in the morning and at night, where as a topical steroid was to be applied when there was a flare up. So I’m going to continue to try this and keep the diet limited to foods I know won’t flare it up. I’m also going to bust out the humidifier and hope that helps as well as our house gets very dry.

I’m sorry it’s been awhile again. I’ve been dealing with some things that have made me feel pretty unmotivated to write anything. I’ve been dealing with some pretty bad eczema flair ups and it’s been driving be absolutely insane trying to figure out what’s causing it (that craziness isn’t helping anything lol).

I’ve been mentally telling myself that I no longer need to follow a full on bodybuilders diet so I am moving on for now for my health. The timeline for when I started bodybuilding and adding more protein and when the eczema started coinside. So I am now torn between looking good and feeling good. The high protein diet definately gave me the look I was aiming for but over time has made me feel horrible.

The last few weeks have been eye opening. I’ve been feeling more tired than normal, my body has been reacting abnormally to food and drink that used to be fine and I have been stumped as to what could be causing all of this.

Hope kicked in a few weeks ago when I had pizza for dinner and the next morning I woke up to hands that didn’t hurt. I didn’t think anything of it so that night I had my normal eggs and Ezekiel Bread and the next morning my hands hurt. Again didn’t think anything of it. I kept thinking maybe it was some allergen in the house. So last Friday I had pizza again for dinner (I love me some pizza🍕🍕!!!) And again woke up the next morning and my hands felt awesome. So we all know the cure right?! PIZZA!!! HAHA! I wish! But no. Both nights there wasn’t a ton of protein in my dinner. So now I’m slowing my roll with protein. I’m not cutting it completely (because that would be almost impossible), but limiting the amount. I have been told on multiple occasions by multiple people that high protein is not the cause, but after 3 1/2 years of doing bodybuilding and 3 1/2 years of having eczema, I beg to differ. There is some connection (it could just be the meat?) and I’m hoping to find it.

My new diet has been mainly- Ezekiel bread, natural peanut butter, salad, black beans, avocado, cucumbers, onions, only 2 eggs vs 2full/3whites, fruits, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and Apple cider vinegar. I found an article that split food into alkaline vs acid based and have been trying to focus on getting more alkaline based foods. Which also means switching from tap water to purified spring water.

I know this is long and not everyone deals with eczema, but I am sorry if you are too. It sucks. I’m seeing an allergist tomorrow in the hopes that they can shed a little more light on what causes my flare ups that I could be missing. I will post an update on Friday. Until then- keep lifting and stay motivated!

We all go through moments of feeling super confident! We wake up and feel like we can rock anything in our wardrobe, we go to the gym and rock every PR and feel amazing when we leave and then go out at night and feel even more confident and fantastic!

These are good days, days everyone should have more of!

Then there are days where you wake up feeling like nothing will look good on you, you’re feeling bloated and gross, your hair won’t do what you want it to do, you put on whatever because it won’t matter, nothing will look good. These are the days we need less of. This is how I have been feeling this week. I worked out and felt awesome, but came home and looked in the mirror and had one of those blah feelings, like I don’t look like I feel….

What does that mean? How am I supposed to look? Isn’t that up to me? Well it’s supposed to be and it is, but these days when you think too much about what other people perceive of you are the days when I don’t know what I’m supposed to look like. I talk a big game of working out all the time, eating moderately healthy, but then I look in the mirror and think… this isn’t what people expect to see. They don’t want to see someone who’s muscles aren’t as visible as they were before when this blog started, they don’t want to see someone who’s hips just keep getting wider regardless of what I do (besides insane dieting), and who’s stomach may seem flat, but keeps getting wider. Where do these standards come from in my head? They come from the lack of confidence I feel that probably relate to hormones (thanks hormones, you suck). I catch myself following people on instagram who are both in super condition (ready for a show or keep posting pictures from when they did a bodybuilding show or photoshoot) and people who train like I do and look normal. The normal ones are the pages that bring me back down to earth. I’m not supposed to constantly have a six pack, nor am I supposed to feel fantastic 24/7 (if you feel fantastic 24/7 please give me your secret). I just have to work on getting out of this mental block of feeling down on myself. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. I hope this helps you if you’re in a funk like I am.

When I started this page, I started with a bunch of questions people were curious about as to how to make their lives better between fitness, nutrition and motivation. I feel like I’ve lost my own motivation to create new content, but came up with something today while browsing motivational quotes (like above) on Pinterest. I included that pin because I need to get more consistent with this blog again and sure enough that worked.

When I’m feeling stumped about what to write about, I look to Pinterest. It’s the picture version of Google. When people tell me they don’t have a Pinterest account, I ask if they’ve been sleeping under a rock! Pinterest can help with just about every aspect of your life! A few ways that I use Pinterest:

To figure out a topic to write about

Find exercise programs

Figure out hair cut, color and style trends

While competing- looking and drooling over desserts

Finding recipes for healthy meals

Finding new ways to Meal Prep

Finding new clothing styles and wardrobe advice

Makeup Tutorials

DIY projects- if I’m curious… I am not good at DIY stuff

etc…

There are so many good uses for Pinterest. You either click on a subject you want to look into or type something into the search and click on whatever picture you like. Then click on that picture and it takes you to a link with even more information.

Example for how I find my motivational quotes that match what I want to discuss:

I haven’t written in a couple days because I have been stumped about what to write about and am currently not feeling excited about anything new. I have a lot coming up in the next few weeks and that stuff is currently pre-occupying my mind. I’m still lifting every other day, for some reason my immune systems seems to not be too happy with me right now when I workout two days in a row, so I’m taking it easy. I’m doing Kris Gethin’s workout plan still and I’m actually loving that. Yesterday was leg day.

The exercises consist of 4 sets. The first 2 are sets of 10, the third set is 10 reps then drop weight rest 10 seconds and do 20 reps, and the fourth set is 10 reps drop weight rest 10 seconds do 20 reps, break 20 seconds then 10 reps.

So the exercises were:

Lying Leg Curls

Smith Machine Feet Forward Squats

Leg Extension

Leg Press

Stationary Bike for 30 min.

Oye, on top of that, I came home and decided that my husband and I would rip up our deck, so more cardio!

I’m hoping if something comes up in this brain of mine, I will write about it! Until next time!